


Finally I Saw Your Face Again

by Cherikella



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Memories, Merlin misses Arthur, Other, introspective
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-18
Updated: 2017-07-18
Packaged: 2018-12-01 09:16:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11483316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cherikella/pseuds/Cherikella
Summary: Merlin’s spent the last centuries watching the world change without Arthur in it. He’s lonely, bitter and brooding. Until one day he sees a familiar face and everything feels right again.





	Finally I Saw Your Face Again

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aslan_1891](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aslan_1891/gifts).



**** It’s been centuries and he was accustomed to being alone in the world by now. Making friends used to be one of his favorite things before. Not anymore. What’s the use of making friends only to lose them afterwards? Only to watch them die? No, he did not want any friends. Alone was good. Alone protected him. 

Waiting. Always with the eternal waiting. Will his patience ever be rewarded? 

He was an old man now. The beard was annoying but at least it was something to take care of every morning. Almost like a pet. Combing it and keeping it in place like second hair, only on his face. One could say he was going slightly mad but long life and bitterness would do that to you. 

Arthur. He still remembered every single moment. A connection so strong does not happen every day. Not even every year. Not even every lifetime. Merlin witnessed so many lifetimes already and he still never met a second Arthur. Was it time for him to finally accept that Arthur was gone? That he was not coming back? That the stories of the once and future king were only legends? A legend he stupidly believed in? A legend he allowed himself to think of as real? 

But then again, he and Arthur both  _ lived  _ the legend! They  _ were  _ the legend! Their adventures, their successes, their failures, the lessons they’ve both learned, all those were legends! And they happened! He was there! He saw! He  _ remembered _ ! Surely Arthur’s legend was as real and true as their adventures. Surely Arthur was coming back to him. Eventually. In his own time. When he was needed. 

He was needed now! He was! Oh, how needed he was! Merlin needed him. But he knew he should not be this selfish. Arthur would return when the realm needed him, not when Merlin needed him. Duty, always duty before anything else. It was the way Arthur was brought up. It was what Arthur knew. 

There was nothing to be done. Nothing to say. Only to wait. 

_ Wait. _

_ Wait. _

_ Wait… _

Another day, the same as all the previous ones. Merlin had fallen into a routine by now. Over and over. It gave him peace. Sort of. 

One morning he woke up and the beard was gone. There were knights in armors outside, there were horses and their hooves could be heard throughout the place. There was a dragon in an underground dungeon, there were Merlin’s friends, laughing and joking and ready to die for what was right. And most of all, there was Arthur, on his horse, his gaze ready to set everything on fire with his passion and his determination and his bravery and selflessness. That was Arthur on the horse, Arthur the King, Arthur the leader, Arthur the Legend. But there was another Arthur, too. The Arthur Merlin knew. The dork. The clotpole. The idiot Arthur. The spoiled rich boy Arthur. The kind Arthur. Arthur, the man who befriended his servant, who forgave when he was betrayed, who understood why he was being lied to. Arthur with the gentle heart. Arthur, the most loyal of friends. That Arthur. All versions of Arthur. They were all his friend and Merlin missed it all. 

He woke up. It was all a dream. A memory. A fantasy. 

He sighed. The sun was already up in the sky, illuminating a world so different than Merlin’s. Cars, computers, tall buildings, no dragons, no magic, no noble battles against powerful evil wizards and vicious beasts. There were different kinds of foes these days. Equally scary and maybe even more difficult to defeat. Foes that could not be faced with a sword and defeated Arthur-style. Foes that were too cunning and deceitful. Arthur would despise those snakes in the grass. Arthur would want to purge them from the world and leave only goodness and beauty, nobleness and justice. 

Merlin couldn’t help seeing the world through Arthur’s eyes as well as his own. He often wondered what would Arthur say or think or do. How would Arthur fit in this world? How would their adventures fit in this world? And would they fit at all? Had they ever fitted in the past? Or were they floating together, out of time, out of space? Did they belong to a place and a time or were they like an abstract, everywhere and nowhere at the same time? Were they as eternal as the sky and the mountains? Were they as deep as the oceans and as vast as the space? As far away from the world as the stars but when needed shining as brightly and warmly as the sun? 

Wasn’t this what mattered most? To be there when needed? To do your best? To die for what you believed in? To be true to yourself, always? 

In the end it didn’t matter if you succeeded or failed. If you succeeded in something you did not believe in, would that count as a victory? No. But even if you failed in something you truly believed in, it was still worth it. Because staying true to yourself and your heart meant more than any mere mortal rewards, any fickle fame, any false fortune. 

Merlin was tired. Merlin was old. Merlin was exhausted. Merlin wanted to close his eyes and give up. To stop waiting for the old days that were not coming back. For Arthur who was not coming back… 

But life always has its way of surprising you. Just when you think you know it, you’re used to it by now, just when you think you’re clever enough to see through it all, life always finds a way of surprising you. Even if you were an immortal wizard, tired of life and on the verge of losing hope. 

Life surprised Merlin in the form of a familiar face Merlin incidentally bumped into while trying to get out of the crowded diner. 

“Oi! Watch it!” gasped the well-known voice. “Don’t you have eyes, old man? Don’t you know who I am? I’m Arthur Pendragon! And do you know whose son I am!” 

A bright smile spread across Merlin’s old wrinkled face and in only that one moment he was in his 20’s again, full of energy and passion and bravery and excitement and most of all, full of love for his dear friend and king. 

Arthur came back to him after all! 


End file.
